Chapter 185 : Chapter 185
Chapter 185 – As Everyone Knows, All Girls Are Perpetually Seventeen
Fortunately, Yi Ning’s face was thicker than tungsten.
After a brief mental crash, she quickly recalibrated reality, analyzed across multiple timelines, and promptly fabricated a flawless excuse for herself.
“…I didn’t wash my hair last night. My scalp’s a little itchy.”
Turning around, Yi Ning curled both hands beneath her chin and made a deliberately silly noise.
“Ehehe~ nyah-nyah-nyah~”
Lu Zheng: “……”
“…Let’s go.”
Choosing not to acknowledge Yi Ning’s act, Lu Zheng waved her along and walked toward the Adventurer’s Guild.
He could understand her desire for a proper bath—but they were flat broke. Where exactly was he supposed to find money to pay for Yi Ning’s luxurious spa day?
Should he borrow some from Lester and the others?
But they’d only just met a few hours ago. Asking to borrow money now felt inappropriate.
Better to wait until after completing the registration and immediately take on a quest to earn some quick cash. It wasn’t like they could afford an inn, anyway.
Soon, Lu Zheng and company arrived back at Miss Annali’s front counter.
She was sprawled lazily across her chair, legs propped up high on the desk. The registration notebook she’d pulled out earlier lay pitifully beside her foot.
Hearing movement at her counter, she cracked open one eye.
“That was fast.”
The look she gave Lu Zheng was full of surprise.
“According to the novels I’ve read, you two should’ve gone through some ‘xx,’ then some ‘oo,’ and finally a ‘beep—.’ What happened to—”
She cut herself off mid-sentence and gave Lu Zheng a thoughtful look.
Then, she lowered her legs from the desk, and a sympathetic expression formed on her face.
She raised one hand and held up a single finger in front of Lu Zheng.
“No need to explain. I get it.”
“Let’s forget the unpleasant stuff and happily resume your adventurer registration.”
That pitying tone made it hard for Lu Zheng to keep a straight face.
But out of ingrained politeness, he only complained internally.
What the hell do you “get,” woman?
“You get what the hell exactly?!”
Luckily, Lester was there—acting as Lu Zheng’s ideal mouthpiece.
He immediately slapped the desk and roared at Annali.
Good job, Lester!
Lu Zheng cheered silently in his heart.
“I swear, the novels I read didn’t—”
“What kind of novels are you even reading?! Not the kind kids should be touching, right? Don’t take what happens in stories as real life!”
Before Annali could finish her sentence, Lester slammed the desk again, letting out a triple combo of furious retorts.
From the way he fired them off so smoothly, it was clear he’d trained hard for this.
As for Annali, evidently the target of much of Lester’s practice, she weakly raised a counterpoint.
“But aren’t stories based on real life~?”
“And stories are also above real life! Like that book you left at my place! You think girls really give oral on a first confession? Or have their first time in the wilderness?!”
“Ehh? They don’t?”
Annali’s voice cracked from the shattering of her worldview.
“They don’t! You’re a girl yourself, aren’t you, Miss Annali? Would you do something like that?!”
Faced with Lester’s scolding, Annali paused for a moment, rubbed her chin with a finger, then responded with a hesitant—
“I think… probably… maybe… shouldn’t…?”
“Why the hell are you answering with question marks?! Don’t tell me you’d actually accept that kind of thing?!”
Lester’s face twisted with existential dread.
Seeing his spiraling expression, Annali tilted her head, then covered her mouth with a playful finger and flashed a sly look.
“Normally, no~ but if it were you, Lester…”
At this point, Eunice could no longer hold back.
She raised her right hand high and quickly interrupted.
“Wait—so that book under Lester’s bed, ‘The Lady Knight’s Forbidden Romance’—was that yours, Miss Annali?!”
Lester, still in rage mode, didn’t even catch the implication in Eunice’s question. He pointed straight at Annali.
“Of course! She forced it on me!”
Hearing this, Eunice let out a small sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Rupert, who had been silent until now, softly raised his right hand.
“Then… the book ‘Absolute Victory of the Childhood Friend’—that one’s also yours?”
When Lester nodded and confirmed, Rupert also visibly relaxed.
“Yup! Honestly, almost everything under my bed was shoved there by Miss Annali when Miss Orphea was about to do a surprise inspection…”
Having vented enough fury for a while, Lester began to calm down.
Then, he suddenly turned his head toward Eunice and Rupert, his voice trembling.
“…How do you guys know what’s under my bed? And the titles, even?! Did you both…?”
“……”
The air went utterly silent.
Eunice and Rupert slowly lifted their heads, gazing wordlessly at the ceiling.
Lu Zheng gently placed a hand on Yi Ning’s shoulder and pulled her back half a step, just in case blood started flying.
Yi Ning, meanwhile, was thoroughly enjoying the drama.
She pulled a fruit from her pocket and munched on it with loud, satisfying crunches.
Once she’d had her fill, she even took another one out and handed it to Lu Zheng.
It was Miss Annali who finally broke the eerie silence.
She scratched her head with a sheepish grin.
“Ahaha… it’s really not that big a deal… Most of those books are just part of my collection. Lester, you don’t need to worry too much~”
As if Lester didn’t know that.
What he really cared about was that his own private stash was mixed in with the rest of the books under his bed!
And he didn’t know whether Eunice or Rupert had seen those too…
If they had—
He might as well just die now.
But there was no graceful way to say any of that out loud, so instead, all his pent-up frustration was once again aimed at Annali.
“All this weird, degenerate behavior—that’s exactly why you’re already in your thirties and still not married, Miss Annali!”
Stab!
That one line pierced Annali’s heart like a sword.
She staggered, clutching the table for support as she slowly stood up, extending a feeble hand in protest.
“I… I’m only seventeen, okay…”
“Seventeen and a few hundred months, right?”
Lester added the finishing blow with chilling calm.
Miss Annali——Completely Defeated……？
As she was metaphorically drawing her final breath, Annali’s gaze happened to drift toward Lu Zheng and Yi Ning, who were still standing nearby, quietly spectating and eating fruit.
That final shred of hope reignited her spirit like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
She activated her Battle Continuation skill.
Fully recovered, she snapped back into action.
Snatching up the little notebook used for registration, she pointed the pen dramatically at Lu Zheng and Yi Ning, who had thus far been uninvolved in the chaos.
“You there—the handsome lad applying to be an adventurer—hurry up and come over here to joyfully register!”